Date: 6/24/2008
Name: Al Paul
email: al.paul@sbcglobal.net
subject:RE: Bottom Painting the San Juan 21
James, The referenced http://sanjuan21.net/#MAINTIPS has two excellent articles on lifting the boat by Mark Weinheimer and Steve Jensen. Both of them built lifting stands which permitted hoisting so that there is 6' or more clearance under the hull. This allows dropping the keel all the way. (You must remove the stop bolt to do this.) I decided to drop the keel only to the 3' depth that we use sailing. If you have a garage you might want to try what I did. I made a cross beam of two 8' 2 X 6s bolted together which I mounted to rest on 4 of the ceiling beams. I then made 2 struts out of 2 X 4s bolted together to form T beams. The struts, cut to a length equal to the ceiling height, were placed so that they straddled the trailer and supported 2 of the ceiling beams as close as possible to the points where the cross beam rested. Finally, I made 2 horses just over 3' high to assume part of the load and to keep the boat from tilting and turning when I climbed aboard. The 2 ton Grizzly chain hoist (grizzly.com, $66.50) worked fine Good luck! Al Paul
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